Chrissie Swan: ‘it got to a stage where it wasn’t fine’

As Swan approaches her 50th birthday next year, she reveals her new-found freedom post-divorce, why she’s done with toxic environments, and how conversations about her weight ‘didn’t help anyone’

Ever since she charmed Australia on Big Brother nearly 20 years ago, Chrissie Swan has become a beloved multimedia personality, moving nimbly from breezy banter in the morning on Melbourne radio show Chrissie, Sam & Browny to talking current affairs in the evening on Network 10 program The Project. But being a mum of three while working multiple jobs deprived her of sleep and her sense of self. So Swan took a step back and found a way forward by walking and taking solo trips to the cinema. As she approaches her 50th birthday next year, she tells Stellar proudly about her life now that “I do everything on my own”

Chrissie Swan may have been runner-up to Reggie Bird on the third season of Big Brother Australia in 2003, but the former copywriter won over the nation’s hearts instead, finding fame on radio and television as a host and presenter.

Now on the cusp of a milestone birthday, Swan has never seemed more comfortable in her own skin.

This was clearly evident on stage during the Logie Awards telecast on June 19 when Swan presented the Most Popular Lifestyle Award alongside Karl Stefanovic.

Her razor-sharp one-liners, natural confidence and jaw-droppingly glamorous appearance made everyone in the room (and watching at home) sit up and take notice.

It also underscored just how good someone can look – and feel – heading into their sixth decade, even in the youth-obsessed entertainment industry.

“There’s all these articles about women being washed up after they turn 50 or whatever,” she tells Stellar, scoffing at the naysayers.

“I’m 50 next year, and that’s not the case for me. It doesn’t have to be the case for anyone. Just because you read an article about it, doesn’t mean it’s true.”

That applies to looks as well as career choices, something Swan has addressed often, if with discomfort, since her fitness regimen became the subject of intense scrutiny in the wake of reality-TV fame.

But Swan has grown fed-up with this dissecting of women’s bodies, and she is at an age, and a stage, where she no longer wants to be part of the conversation at all.

“I think the reason I’m not talking about anything now is because I have done that in the past 20 years,” she says.

“I’ve waded into that kind of toxic environment, and it didn’t make me feel good. And it didn’t help me, and it didn’t help anyone else. And it just propagates the interest in a woman’s body, which is irrelevant.”

Social-media speculation disinterests Swan, and nobody she knows or cares about talks to her about her body.

Chrissie Swan: “it just propagates the interest in a woman’s body, which is irrelevant.” Picture: Daniel Nadel.

When she isn’t filming, she insists (with a laugh) that she doesn’t bother even to look at herself in the mirror most of the time.

“I get up, I put on the same clothes every single day and I just get about my life,” she tells Stellar.

“The TV stuff is someone gives me a dress and does my hair and does my make-up. That’s what television is about. But... it’s a small fraction of my life. The rest is me, just living in this body. And it’s always been that way.”

Besides, Swan says her most valuable chats – on topics like career, purpose and family – happen with her children. Now that Leo, 13, Kit, 10, and Peg, nine, are becoming more independent, “they can converse with you,” she explains.

“They can tell you how they feel, you can take into consideration their feelings, and they can take into consideration yours. It’s so much more collaborative, the older they get, and I’ve always been the sort of parent that has been very transparent and honest.”

Swan’s children were very much part of her decision to take on two high-profile jobs this year: helping to fill in for Carrie Bickmore on The Project while she was on sabbatical in the UK, and taking a seat next to Spice Girl Melanie “Mel B” Brown, comedian Dave Hughes and The Bachelor star Abbie Chatfield on the new-look judging panel for the upcoming season of Network 10’s The Masked Singer Australia.

“Mondays became my favourite days very, very quickly,” Swan says of her time on The Project.

“I got to read the news and learn about current affairs because in [breakfast] radio, we don’t talk about Ukraine. We don’t talk about petrol hikes. That’s not on the table. But these are things that I do have opinions on.”

Helping her acquire those news-forward skills were her fellow panellists.

“It has been just fantastic,” Swan says, “I learnt so much from Waleed [Aly]. In the Venn diagram, there is a common area [between TV and radio], but they were different enough for it to be a challenge.”

Settling into her role on The Masked Singer, Swan admits she can still be a little starstruck by Brown and she can’t help thinking, “Wow, I am talking to Scary Spice” whenever they have a conversation.

Of course, she reveals she’s also quietly hoping their fledgling friendship might evolve to a point where the entire judging panel could belt out a Spice Girls number during karaoke at the wrap party.

But now that Swan’s in the hot seat rather than watching at home, the longtime fan also admits it’s proving harder to decipher the identity of the costumed celebrities than she thought it would.

Even so, sitting on The Masked Singer panel, Swan marvels at all the “wonderful twists and turns” that life has taken since she took a chance on television in 2002.

Chrissie Swan: ‘I learnt so much [on The Project]. Picture: Daniel Nadel.

Unlike some stars who choose not to acknowledge their humble beginnings, Swan is both grateful and proud of her Big Brother experience, recognising that despite all her work since, it is still Big Brother and The Circle (the morning chat show she co-hosted with Denise Drysdale, Gorgi Coghlan and Yumi Stynes in 2010) that people most want to talk to her about all these years later.

“You just can’t fathom the behemoth Big Brother was,” Swan says.

“I think, from memory, something like three million people tuned in to watch that grand final with me and Reggie.

“It was just a special time because there was nothing else on television, really. We didn’t have all these streaming services and you just had to watch what was given to you.”

While Swan’s housemate and 2003 series winner Reggie Bird returned to Big Brother this year to have another tilt at the show with other notable alums, Swan pressed on with her day job as co-host with Sam Pang and Jonathan Brown on Nova’s Chrissie, Sam & Browny breakfast radio show in Melbourne.

She’s become a veteran of the format, learning over the years that even though mistakes are “part of the territory” when you are live on air, you can never let the fear of potential backlash affect you.

“I was talking about this with Abbie [Chatfield] because she’s very – and I am reticent to use this term – controversial,” Swan offers.

“And she was asking me, ‘How do you deal with being taken out of context? And people getting mad at you?’ And I said, ‘Before I say something, I think, do I really believe this? And if I do, then I say it, and then I never think about it again. Because I’m allowed to be certain things. I’m allowed to say certain things, and so are other people.”

Harder for Swan is making big decisions like relocating from Melbourne to Sydney in order to film The Masked Singer. Fortunately, her daughter Peg reassured her that “the short-term pain would be worth the long-term gain” of seeing Mum on one of the shows they enjoy watching as a family.

“My favourite film [growing up] was Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, and it feels like I am Mike Teavee and I’ve inserted myself into one of my favourite shows,” she says with a laugh. “And now we can sit back and watch it!”

A devoted and hands-on mother, Swan says she has always put her children’s needs first.

“My rule is that whenever they call me, I will answer the phone,” she divulges.

“And that remains even if it’s inconvenient or if I’m in a meeting. I’ll always excuse myself [to answer] because I want them to have the security of knowing whenever they call [I’m there].

“And moving forward as well, even if it’s at 2am, I want them to know that they can call me and I’m not going to get mad.”

Yet it wasn’t long ago that juggling the demands of her young family, coupled with doing breakfast radio for almost 20 years, left Swan chronically sleep-deprived, she reflects now.

“I got to 45 and I thought, I am a ball of nerves here. I am harried all the time. I can’t control my thoughts,” she explains.

“I am an anxious person, and I’ve always been that way, but I’d never really acknowledged it, and that was fine. But it got to a stage where it wasn’t fine.”

Chrissie Swan: ‘You can’t steer the ship when you’re a mess’. Picture: Daniel Nadel.

Eventually realising that she was running on empty, Swan decided she needed to start prioritising her own needs again because, she says, “You can’t steer the ship when you’re a mess.

“I just said at our family meeting, ‘I can’t be the first person awake or the last person asleep anymore. We’re going to have to come up with a different solution that’s bespoke to our family.’”

Finding herself in the “very unique position” of finishing her workday at 10am and with all three children at school, Swan began walking, often for hours at a time, which ended up improving her physical and mental health.

“The day stretches out before me. But I absolutely couldn’t have done it before,” she says, adding quickly that “it’s not about hitting the steps or hitting the rates-per-minute or anything like that. It’s got nothing to do with that.

“The reason I walk for so long is my brain needs that amount of time to function properly. And then to sleep well.”

More sleep, older kids and a grounded professional life also means that Swan is embracing opportunities to do things for herself, by herself, wherever possible – like going to the movies or the theatre.

“I do everything on my own,” she declares enthusiastically ahead of a planned brunch (solo, of course) at a nearby café to indulge in her love of shakshuka eggs.

Along with exploring her new-found freedom, one that comes after her amicable split in 2021 from Chris Saville, her partner of 15 years, Swan has loved seeing their children forge their own paths, too.

Motherhood has been her favourite job, by far, she says, and that includes the messy chaos of caring for newborns through to seeing her eldest son step into his teenage years.

“Until you’re in it with so many young kids, you just don’t realise how little time there is and how dependent they are,” she explains. “When my youngest turned eight, I really felt a loosening of their dependence.”

Chrissie Swan stars on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar. Picture: Daniel Nadel.

With a better perspective going into her 50th birthday next year, Swan has considered a holiday to Europe to mark the occasion but baulks at the suggestion her celebration will be anything like the glamorous (belated) 40th tour recently undertaken by Zoë Foster Blake and her gal pals in Italy.

“Doesn’t it look amazing; my holidays never look like that,” Swan concedes of the skincare creator’s stunning Instagram posts, adding with a guffaw, “they even look glamorous after spewing over the side of a boat. I mean, come on!”

Even if it’s not picture-perfect, Swan will not sweat the details for her birthday bash.

“I’m not anxious at all about anything at the moment because, you know, I’ve been walking every day for years and looking after [my] mental health, so I do not really get anxious about anything anymore,” she says.

“That is something I couldn’t have said previously.”

Originally published as Chrissie Swan: ‘it got to a stage where it wasn’t fine’